Wireless sensor networks consisting of large numbers of inexpensive and energy-constrained devices are an emerging area of networking research. Wireless sensor networks are expected to find a wide range of applications including target tracking, habitat monitoring, and disaster relief.
Due to the severely constrained network resources that characterize the majority of wireless sensor networks, efficient data dissemination represents a major challenge in the design of self-configurable wireless sensor networks that can be sustained for lifetimes useful for their intended applications.
The majority of research in the area of efficient data dissemination in wireless sensor networks have focused on the design of routing algorithms that attempt to minimize the amount of routing overhead traffic through the network. Most commonly, algorithms that utilize event subscriptions, whereby events are disseminated on-demand in the network, have been proposed. Other algorithms that use data fusion techniques to reduce the amount of data traffic in the network have also been put forward.
One common drawback to the above described data dissemination methods is that they are based on fixed dissemination rules that are applied globally at every sensor node in the network. Further, they distinguish among neither the types of data to be disseminated nor the various transport mechanisms by which data may be disseminated. Accordingly, these algorithms lack the ability to independently and dynamically process and disseminate data at a sensor node based on operating conditions at the node itself. This typically results in these algorithms being very inefficient when applied in heterogeneous sensor networks or when network conditions become non-uniform in the network.
What is needed therefore are methods and systems for data processing and dissemination in a wireless sensor network that provide dynamic data processing and dissemination independently at each sensor node in the network.